So far, we have learned that Latin verbs and nouns change their form according to how the speaker uses them in a sentence. The patterns for
verbs are called
conjugations and patterns for
nouns are called
declensions.
Instead of memorizing the pattern for every single word we learn to conjugate or decline a representative word for each conjugation and declension; these representative examples are called
paradigms. LEARN THE PARADIGMS, AND YOU WILL HAVE A
MUCH EASIER TIME!
Paradigms we have had so far:
Verbs: For
First Conjugation:
Laudo, -are. All verbs that you see listed in the vocabulary as
—o,
-are (e.g.
conservo, conservare) are
First Conjugation and will conjugate like
laudo.
For
Second Conjugation:
Moneo, -ere. All verbs listed as
—eo, ere (e.g.
video, videre) are
Second Conjugation and will conjugate like
moneo.
Nouns: You can tell the declension of a noun from its
genitive singular ending. For example,
all nouns whose genitive singular ending is
-ae are First Declension, and
all nouns whose genitive singular ending is
-i are Second Declension. That is why both the Nominative Singular (the form under which you will find the word in the dictionary) and the Genitive Singular ending (which tells you the declension) are listed in the vocabulary, and why you have to learn them both. To get the
base of a noun, remove the genitive singular ending--that is the base onto which the other endings go. For example,
pueri is the genitive singular of
puer, and so the base is
puer-. But the base of
ager is
agr-, because the genitive singular is
agri.
For
First Declension: Porta All nouns listed as
—a, -ae (e.g.
rosa, rosae) will decline like
porta.
For
Second Declension, there are two variations in the nominative singular form. One group of nouns has
-us as the ending (like
amicus, -i); another ends in
-er (like
puer, pueri). Some nouns, like
puer retain the
er- in the declension (p. 18), others, like
ager, agri lose the
e- in the declension (p. 18). Learning these is a matter of memorization.
Now, for some practice: Translate these sentences describe the syntactical usage that the case endings indicate in the noun/adjective pairs.
Example: Nautae multi rosas amant.
Translation: Many sailors love roses. Noun/adjective syntax: nominative; subject of sentence.